Data centers and co-location providers in particular struggle with both supplying requisite power as well as cooling. As data center density continues to increase there is a growing demand for more energy efficient and cost effective data centers and co-location solutions.
A data center is designed to maintain interior ambient conditions suitable for proper operation of the computer systems therein. Typical data centers may consume more than twice the power needed to support the plurality of computer systems housed therein. This is a result of the inefficient air conditioning units that may account for half of the total power consumed in the data center to cool the plurality of computer systems therein. This inefficiency prohibits support of high density computing systems in today's data centers.
Embodiments disclosed include a closed-looped, energy efficient, cost effective thermal management system that leverages natural surrounding resources, namely water, to control thermal conditions and reduce the overall requirement for cooling power in waterborne data centers.
A data center is a facility designed to house, maintain, and power a plurality of computer systems. The computer systems within the data center are generally rack mounted within a support frame referred to as a rack. The data center is defined to maintain interior ambient conditions suitable for proper operation of the computer systems therein.
A key constraint of the data center is cooling capacity. Each watt consumed by the computer systems is a watt of waste heat that must be removed to maintain suitable operating temperature. Conventional data centers employ air conditioning units to maintain suitable operating temperatures. The air conditioning units are inefficient and account for more than half of the total power consumed in the data center.
As power density in data centers continues to increase, data center providers struggle with cooling demands that can quickly out strip the data center capabilities. Conventional data centers employ traditional air conditioning units to maintain suitable operating temperatures for the plurality of computer systems therein. These air conditioning units are inefficient and may account for half of the power consumed in the data center facility. This inefficiency prohibits support of high-density computer systems in data centers.
The methods and systems for a water based closed-loop cooling system described, using naturally cold water as a heat sink in a plurality of heat exchange systems, consume substantially less power to maintain interior ambient conditions suitable for proper operation of the computer systems therein when compared to traditional air conditioning units.